Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Mereworth Castle with east and west pavilions. Built by Colin Campbell for John Fane between 1720 and 1730, it was a straight copy of Palladio's famous villa overlooking Vicenza, the Villa Rotonda/Villa Capra/Villa Almerico. Mereworth Castle is the closest English imitation of a Palladian villa and therefore a key monument of the English Palladian movement. It was originally a moated castle, and has numerous impressive additions including the east and west pavillions and a triumphal arch.

Summary from record TQ 65 SE 171:

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1700 to 1799

Monument Types

• CASTLE (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1332 AD? to 1700 AD?)
• PARK (Medieval to Unknown - 1356 AD?)
• COUNTRY HOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1722 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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[TQ 6689 5323] Mereworth Castle [NR] (1) Mereworth Castle with east and west pavilions, Grade I. Built by Colin Campbell for John Fane between 1720 and 1730. (For full description see list.) (2) Mereworth Castle (main block) with moat walls to north, Grade I. House, roofed 1723. Designed by Colin Campbell for John Fane, 1736 tobecome the Earl of Westmorland. Large square block with four identical fronts, excepting the lack of portico steps to east and west. The block was originally moated, parts still visible to north. Pavilion to the north west and stables of Mereworth Castle, Grade I, Maidstone Road. Pavilian c. 1740-50 Lodge on east side of drive to Mereworth Castle, Grade II. Entrance Lodge, now on wrong side of Maidstone Road, which has been moved. Mid18th century. Lodge on west side of drive to Mereworth Castle, Grade II. Entrance lodge, now on the wrong side of Maidstone Road, which has been moved. Mid 18th century. Kitchen garden wall and The Bothy to the north of Mereworth Castle, Grade II. Red brick kitchen garden wall, a complete rectangle. Late 18th century on inside of wall to east The Bothy. Mid-late 19th century cottage. (For full descriptions see list.) (3) Mereworth Castle. The shell of Mereworth Castle was completed in 1723 by Colen Campbell; a straight copy of Palladio's famous villa overlooking Vicenza, the Villa Rotonda. Campbell's client was John Fane, who in 1736 inherited the Earldon of Westmoorland. In the 1720's however he did not have to support the state appropriate to a peer, and could indulge his fancy with a castle (Campbell calls it that) surrounded by a moat. The moat has been filled in, but as approached from the north over a lake, the house is splendidly formed by its free standing pavilions left and right, and two giant cedars. Full architectural descriptin of house, pavilions and lodgs. [Were the pavilions built at the same time as the house? They are not attached to it - indeed the moat made that impossible. Campbell makesno mention of them in Vitruvius Britannicus. Perhaps Fane needed moreaccommodation after 1736 when he inherited the peerage. The west pavilion nearly, but not quite encroaches on the site of the medieval church (TQ 65 SE 27) rebuilt only in 1744. Yet recently discovered drawings by Campbell inlcude one for the stable pavilion, not admittedly to the executed design, but dated 1723. That would seem toindicate that they were at any rate intended from the first. Triumphal arch, at the head of the valley, but no longer visible from the house, as of course it was built to be. Brick faced with sandstone ashlar. Central arch flanked by coupled composite half-columns.] (4) [TQ 668 533] Mereworth Castle is the closest English imitation of a Palladian villa and therefore a key monument of the English Palladian movement. It is closely modelled on the VillaCapra, Vicenze. Colonel Fane had inherited a moated castle that stood on the site of the present house and Jussey suggests that this may have dictated the plan, as originally Campbell's Palladian adaptation was surrounded by a moat which was most regrettably filled in during the 19th century. (5) Mereworth Castle. Almost an exact copy of the Villa Almerico at Vincenza. This Halian villa at Mereworth was erected for the Honary John Fane by a Scottish architect named Colin Campbell between 1720 and 1723 at a cost of #100,000. The site was first cleared by the destruction of the ancient moated manor house, the ancient parish church and the rectory. Architectural description of the house. (6)

Additional bibliography (6-15)

Parkland at Mereworth is recorded in a document of 1356 but there is otherwise little information about the size or boundaries of the park (16)

Description from record TQ 65 SE 171:
The following text is from the original listed building designation:
In entry for:
TQ 65 SE MEREWORTH MAIDSTONE ROAD (south side)
2/43 Mereworth Castle 1.8.52 (main block) with GV moat walls to north
the moat walls shall be omitted to read:
Mereworth Castle (main block)
TQ 65 SE MEREWORTH MAIDSTONE ROAD (south side)
2/43 Mereworth Castle (main block) with 1.8.52 moat walls to north
GV I
House. Roofed 1723. Designed by Colin Campbell for John Fane, 1736 to become the Earl of Westmorland. Interior plasterwork by Francesco Bagutti and Fresco painting by Francesco Sleter. Based on Palladio's Villa Capra near Vicenza stuccoed in C18 'stone colour' with Portland stone porticos, entablatures and window surrounds. Leaded ribbed dome. Large square block with 4 identical fronts, excepting the lack of portico steps to east and west. String-course above basement, cornice-band at portico entablature level. Hipped slate roof carrying heavily banded almost hemispherical dome with blind lantern surrounded by high half-columns. Single pedimented and balconied 1st floor windows each side of Hexastyle Ionic porticos. Flight of steps up to north and south porticos. The block was originally moated, parts still visible to north. Garden balustrades to north, connecting with side walls and abutments of portico steps. Interior: Extremely important and an almost complete survival. Entrance Hall: Barrel-vaulted with plaster busts in shells over side doors and pair of female allegorical figures over arched doorway into central rotunda. Rotunda: 2 storeys and dome with plaster copping. Four major axial and four minor diagonal doorways on both floors, the upper to deep balustraded gallery on carved volute brackets. Cornice under gallery. Sumptuous plasterwork with pairs of female figures, putti and busts in shells over doorways, and rectangular relief panels, portrait busts and foliage drops arrayed on the walls. Axial doors with Ionic fluted doorcases in deep recesses with arched heads containing, east and west eagles with cartouches and wreaths, south, the Fane crest, and north, a bull's head in a coronet. Subsidiary doors below and axial doors above with triangular pediments. Library: Coved vault with central rectangular plaster compartments. Main doorcase with Corinthian half-columns and pediment, subsidiary doors with flat hoods. Shelves standing proud of the walls. West Bed-Chamber: Corner fireplace, compartmented painted and plastered ceiling with allegorical and antique scenes. Modillion cornice work pulvinated freize. West Dressing Room: 2 storey fireplace with 4 corner volutes supporting mantel. Compartmented painted and plastered ceiling with allegorical and Antique scenes. Modillion (cont'd ) cornice with pulvinated frieze. Long Gallery: Deep cove painted illusionis- tically in the early C18 Venetian style by Francesco Sleter, dated 1732. Central plaster compartments with 5 'quadro riportati' allegorical scenes by Sleter. Modillion cornice with frieze-decoration of masks and wreaths. 3 doorways, with Corinthian half-columned and triangular pedimented surrounds. 2 pedimented chimney-pieces. East Dressing Room: Central rectangular panel to ceiling with allegorical scene and painted decoration in ceiling corners. 2-storey pedimented chimney-piece. Apple floor in geometrical patterns. Modillion cornice with acanthus frieze. East Bedroom: Compartmented painted and plastered ceiling with allegorical and Antique scenes. Corner fireplace. Modillion cornice, scroll and putti relief frieze. Dining Room: Coved ceiling with scrolled plaster supports in corners. 3 compartment plaster ceiling in rectangular surround. Mid C18 rococo fireplace with volute supports. See Howard Stutchbury, the Architecture of Colin Campbell, Manchester, 1967, 54-58. Also John Harris, The Palladians, London, 1981, 66-67: Country Life, XLVII, 808,876,912; XCV, 242; CIV,728; CXVI, 209. Listing NGR: TQ6686353282 (17)

Historic england archive material (18)

<1> OS 1:10000 1978 (OS Card Reference). SKE48163.

<2> Country Houses of Kent (A Oswald) (OS Card Reference). SKE39311.

<3> MHLG Malling RD Kent May 1950 58 (OS Card Reference). SKE47139.

<4> Archit of Colin Campbell 1967 54-8 (H Stutchbury) (OS Card Reference). SKE37351.

<5> The Palladians 1981 66-7 (J Ham's) (OS Card Reference). SKE50460.

<6> Country Life 47 808 876 912 (OS Card Reference). SKE39435.

<7> Country Life 95 242 (OS Card Reference). SKE39464.

<8> Country Life 104 728 (OS Card Reference). SKE39377.

<9> Country Life 116 209 (OS Card Reference). SKE39386.

<10> DOE(HHR) Boro of Tonbridge and Malling Kent April 1985 45-48 (OS Card Reference). SKE40853.

<11> The Bldgs of Eng W Kent and the Weald 1980 419-421 illus (J Newman) (OS Card Reference). SKE50145.

<12> Arch J 126 1969 254 (DJV Fitz-Gerald) (OS Card Reference). SKE36559.

<13> Trans Battle and Dist Hist Soc 7 1958 24-5 (OS Card Reference). SKE50627.

<14> Moated Sites Res Grp 6 1979 (Ed CJ Bond) (OS Card Reference). SKE47281.

<15> Arch Cant 93 1977 222 (T Tatton-Brown) (OS Card Reference). SKE36151.

<16> Susan Pittman, 2011, Elizabethan and Jacobean Deer Parks in Kent (Monograph). SKE32115.

<17> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<18> Historic England, Archive material associated with Mereworth Castle listed building (Archive). SKE53850.

Sources and further reading

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